Twizzle
and shine, as easy as that needle opens one eye to allow that damn camel
through a machine that gobbles up dreams and spits out all kinds of rhyme
and reason, keep your face in line and cop shoot cop and the liberation
of your worse intentions. Walk like a Luddite and nail it down, I don’t
do this, I don’t do that, home in now and we have been told about your
kind... fighting the forces that want to turn you in to just another
docile music consumer and here are this week’s musical adventures – come
along join in, so much good music around if you really go look for it.
What a wonderfully busy week, most weeks are stupidly busy, this has been
extra so – hurling and hauling bags of Organs around London (and Brighton
and...), watching faces who didn’t know what Mouse was going to do, Spit
Like This doing it properly, trying to catch too many bands at once,
falling through a time hole and noticing there’s a Monarch again, that
and Earth and Imperial Leisure hitting the radio once more, and the street
and man on the street, how you feeling? Alright? And the pure joy that
is a Grantura gig and Herzoga on Organ TV and sorting out the new Pure
Reason Revolution single and F**ked Up and The Death Set and the good Doc
S and a million rats swarming all over the Highbury station platform and
not giving a hoot about humans...and how good is the new Everything Must
Go stuff sounding?! Get in to that Emergency Room...!!

These are the things that
have been in our ears this week, please explore and if it sounds interesting
then just hit the links and make your own minds up, our reviews and thoughts
are mere signposts designed to guide you to the things you might like to
feast on yourselves... don’t you just love the instant hit of the www.

IS THIS WHY YOU BOOKMARKED ME?

EFTERKLANG
have announced a spring tour of the UK and Ireland. Like their hugely successful
tour in November/December last year, the group will perform as an 8-piece.
The line-up will include Anna Brønsted, whose solo act Our
Broken Garden, will perform as support for the tour.The Danish collective,
currently on tour in Europe, will release “Caravan” as a strictly limited
edition 7” (and download) to coincide with the tour. The single is takenfrom
the acclaimed album Parades (last year’s Organ album of the year). You
can listen to Caravan here: www.myspace.com/theleaflabel,
find out more at www.myspace.com/efterklang“Highlight
of the Efterklang tour is a headlining show at London's Queen Elizabeth
Hall, and we can announce that the latest Leaf signing, Wildbirds &
Peacedrums, from Gothenburg in Sweden, will make their debut UK performance
at the show. Their album, Heartcore, will be released on April 28. - www.myspace.com/wildbirdsandpeacedrums

Well
we’ve shouted about it before, and we'll go on shouting about it until
we’re blue in the face, but then we can breathe and shout until we’re blue
in the face and you need to believe the guy who was once in Roach Motel
- just hit this link
then go explore and ask who that guy in the picture there in the orange
shirt is, go read his pages and ask questions and....

GODSPEED
HAVEN’T SPLIT UP - Following this week's reports flowing around the web
(not here mind you, we know how these Godspeed things work) that Godspeed
You! Black Emperor have split up, band member Efrim Menuck, who originally
gave some people the impression that that was the case, has denied that
the anarchic Canadian avant garde collective have called it a day, despite
the five year indefinite hiatus. Menuck was quoted by some website or other
as saying words to the effect that the group wouldn't be getting back together
due to some sort of existential angst related to the Iraq war, but now
he's denied that he said it. He told Pitchfork: "The Drowned in Sound thing
is a misquote. It's true, Godspeed hasn't existed for years, we've been
on permanent hiatus since 2002. If and when we do call it quits permanently,
it won't be because of the Iraq war".

CRAP
PROSECUTION OF THE WEEK - Cops at the May 2007 Bristol Critical Mass
nicked a cyclist who stopped a driver from driving away after knocking
a cyclist off his bike - rather than arrest the road rage driver. This
week the case was thrown out of court by the judge who accepted that the
police evidence was at best 'severely flawed' and at worst, fabricated.(www.schnews.org.uk)

FREE-BOARDER
- Money money money. Why haven't we got any? Well, perhaps we've got the
right idea and it's everyone one else that needs to change. That's the
idea behind the Freeconomy website which allows people to sign up and trade
skills and labour without any lucre in sight.

To
spread the word further (and without paying for any advertising naturally),
the site's founder, a guy called Saoirse, is walking from Bristol to India
without using any cash, relying on the generosity of people he meets along
the way.

After
a tough time crossing the prosperous home counties, things have apparently
improved for him since passing though ever-friendly Brighton in the last
couple of days. He is due to be in Dover on Saturday before crossing the
channel and heading east... To find out more about the freeconomy, read
his travel blog, or contact him to meet up on his pilgrimage, see www.justfortheloveofit.org

John on the phone...

ORGAN
ON YOUR RADIO - WEEKLY on SUNDAYS AT 9.00pm via RESONANCE 104.4FM in London
and worldwide via www.resonancefm.com
more details here

ORGAN TV?

ORGAN
TVis on your screens in the
UK right now. Every Wednesday evening, NOW
AT THE NEW TIME OF 9.30pm on the OPEN
ACCESS 2 Channel on SKY160. And now due to the fine response, repeated
every Sunday on SKY883 at 9.30pm.

What's
it all about? Simple, just good music, and the art of good video making...
Same musical policy as we've always had with Organ - the labels are just
handy signposts, as long as the music and video making has that X factor
- expect a healthy eye/earboiling mix of metal, punk, prog, beats, post
rock, post punk, post man pat, hardcore, indie, alternative, pronk, whatever.....
music and creativity for the open minded

Want
to get your video on? Well all you need to do is make us aware of what
you have, send us a link to your video on MySpace or You Tube or wherever,
or a VHS or a DVD and if you have something that we want to broadcast then
we'll chase you for a master broadcast format and wallop, sorted

DEMO TIME

We're
just going to tell you about the very very best once a week, no more time
for the average, only the most exciting - we're very very selective, when
we tell you it's good then it really is goooooooood

DEMO
OF THE WEEKEATEN BY TIGERS – Solstice
– More from the refined post-rock quartet, more of those slowly building
instrumental passages occasionally punctuated by a quiet vocal line or
a gentle glitch. Uplifting goodness once more – think 65days in a very
relaxed state and building in a far less hurried manner and you’ll be somewhere
near where Eaten By Tigers are. Another beautifully serene set of well
mannered recordings – www.myspace.com/eatenbytigers

ALSO
CHECK OUTAUTOCOIL – Fuzzy synth rock
instrumentals and a love of Primal Scream flavoured psychedelic Krautness
and synth experiments are clearly firing inspiration here. Two warm analogish
primitive lo-fi tracks, two inviting pieces full of positive promise (good
enough to get straight on our radio show last week) and well worth your
time. www.myspace.com/autocolt

SEEDS OF DOUBT – 80’s sounding
lush New Romantic John Foxx real-time synth pop from the South of England,
authentically good at it, decent songs, meety sound – www.myspace.com/seedsofdoubt

ALBUM
OF THE WEEKSURROUNDED – The Nautilus
Years (One Little Indian) – Glowing euphoria and fuzzy utopia and far far
more than just “Sweden’s answer to The Flaming Lips”. Gloriously crafted
songs alive with light and colour and texture and reaching right out to
touch. Marten Rydell’s vocal delivery is right up there with the very very
best – Mark Linkous of Spaklehorse or Remy Zero’s Cinjun Tate - Glorious
songs, graceful sounds, plaintive. Beautiful details and quietly ambitious
intent, words that colour everything – they succeeded, they’re right to
declare themselves fiercely proud of this album. The Nautilus Years is
Mercury Rev good, Thee More Shallows good (that seriously high praise from
these parts) - songs that sparkle, details that tingle, fragile brittle
atmosphere. Mournful gentle whispered melodies, orchestral highlights.
Twinkling layers of beautiful Mellotron, of radio static, half-heard voices,
cellos, gliding guitar enveloping sparkle and stars that fly and tendered
shelter – and all so beautifully focused and never losing the way in the
halo sparks and that fuzzy euphoria. Glowing spheres and drifting boats
and sonar spots and glacial forts and a world viewed through a looking
glass - and just about perfect in every single way. So much depth
- www.surrounded.se or skip right
to a taste and download a track here
The album is out on One Little Indian on March 10th and the band have a
number of UK dates coming up any moment now – Feb 17th 93 Feet Feet East
- London, Feb 18th Frog And Nighingale – Chester, 19th Monto @ Water Rats
– London, 20th The Louisiana – Bristol.

ALBUM
OF THE WEEK 2ALEC K REDFEARN & THE
EYESORES - The Blind Spot (Cuneiform) - A beautifully intriguing album
that's almost impossible to pin down, an album that contains passages of
sheer enjoyment. After an opening piece of electronically treated
jaw harp messing around the first of a series of jewels begins in an unassuming,
gently personal kind of Eastern-European kind of folk tune. The melodies
are ravishing throughout - sparse, simple with twists, solemn and uplifting.
Instruments are poignant glockenspeils and welcoming hurdy-gurdy. Hailing
from Providence, Rhode Island, the band appears to involve around fifteen
musicians and singers. Alec K himself has a rich yet fragile voice,
joined by equally delicious high female harmonies (often very reminiscent
of Lake Of Puppies or Sea Nymphs) - classical voices with a hint of eccentric
Americana. Much of the album is taken up with the I Am The Resurrection
and the Light song cycle: eight interlocking, often dazzling pieces. Soaked
with genuine feeling and deep spirituality, these songs fuse 20th/21st
century contemporary composition with dark cabaret and klezmer. Beginning
as bittersweet, bright and slightly strange sea shanties very very reminiscent
of William D Drake, then creep gradually up mountains of strangeness until
sounding like 65daysofstatic playing John Adams and Steve Reich (or, more
familiarly, Philip Glass / Michael Nyman). Songs that also journey to some
dark and lonely places; the sleeve notes reveal the story behind the cycle,
though a listener may well have felt the sense of it already. However bleak,
there's extraordinary depth to this music because of the way it's so sensitively
crafted - rich, quiet, refined dynamics, nothing obvious, everything honest
and played with a deft touch. The melodies themselves promise hope and
celebrate fragile humans despite the darkness. Haunting, compelling,
quite unique, 'The Blind Spot' is an album to live with, to keep returning
to. www.cuneiformrecords.com
or www.aleckredfearn.com

ALSO
CHECK OUT

BALTIC FLEET – Baltic Fleet
(Blow Up) – Sometimes something just feels right, Baltic Fleet is Paul
Fleming’s project – Paul Fleming is current keyboard player with Echo And
The Bunnymen and this album was recorded in hotel rooms, during sound-checks
and grabbed moments here on found pianos in dressing rooms there during
a world tour. Instrumental interpretations of visited cities and chance
meetings. Track two – Black Lounge -was recorded on a tour bus driving
through mountains from Barcalona to Madrid for instance, 3 Dollar Dress
in a Houston sound check after a night out in Austin Texas – you don’t
really need to know the circumstance though, you just need to sit back
and let it flow and let the relaxed beauty take you with it. Touches on
Neu, bits of Eno or OMD or Doves or Sigur Ros and yes those bits of guitar
did sound distinctly like the Bunnymen well before the sleeve notes were
checked and Will Sargent’s name was spied here and there. This is just
a great album - pleasant, refined, relaxing, reflective – fine fine soundscapes
and passages and although we dropped a few names, nothing that obviously
sounds like anyone or anything else. Just a really pleasant and rather
beautiful relaxing uncomplicated uncluttered and rather recommended instrumental
album – www.myspace.com/balticfleet
or www.blowuprecords.com

LIGHT
PUPIL DILATE – Snake Wine (Lifeforce) – A forceful cocktail of Voivod/Mastodon
edged progressive thrash metal adventure that takes on a slice of King
Crimson twisted prog here and a hint of Fugazi style DC hardcore there.
L.P.D are actually a powerfully relentless trio from Atlanta Georgia and
this is a rather heavy and indeed rather impressive album. Snake Wine is
a full on experience - constantly challenging, brooding - twisting innovative
heavy metal for those with a taste for intense post-rock challenge – www.myspace.com/lightpupildilate

RAFTER – Sex Death Cassette
(Asthmatic Kitty) - There’s all kinds of things going on here, no
need to look up (so f*** you the sky). Yes it does really sound like Guided
By Voices trying to be Paul Simon and swearing at the sky. A collage of
cute lo-fi left-field pop and asking the sky to take it back and all kinds
of alternative multi instrumented psychedelia and beautiful mellow pop
songs laced with unobtrusive free-form experimentation and bits of breezy
jazz and gentle alt.funk and a life of waiting and lightening bolts...
www.asthmatickitty.com

RICHARD SWIFT – Instruments
Of Science & Technology: Music From The Films Of R/Swift (Secretly
Canadian) – In which Richard Swift glides through some avant ambience and
a light coating of industrial resonance. For those of you who wondered
what would happen if Brian Eno and Wendy Carlos had a love child (I stole
that bit from the press release – it summed things up rather conveniently
well). Artistic date we say (chin stroking) Instrumental electronica and
all rather enjoyably stimulating and enlightening and rather different
in a most positive way – www.secretlycanadian.com

CHANGING MODES – Down And
Out in Shangri-La (self release) – A discerning mix of Dresden Dolls drama,
Todd Rundgren flavoured complexity and something that leans towards a more
traditional neo-prog sound. Wendy Griffiths has a voice to rival Amanda
Palmer, those stylish keyboards and that song construction make it hard
to avoid the obvious Dresden Dolls comparison – we make it in a positive
way. Changing Modes are clearly an ambitious band, they’re from New York,
they have some delightful slices of genuinely chewy progressive awkwardness
in there with their very listenable blend of constantly shifting sometimes
demanding earfood – www.changingmodes.com
or www.myspace.com/changingmodes

JUNKBOY – Three (Enraptured)
– Gentle easy uncomplicated clever post-folk (yeah I know post-folk, sorry
to introduce that one in to the musical vocabulary, but you know, we’re
just using mere words to describe the majesty of music here and these signposts
and shorthand terms and just that). Gentle easy detailed simplicity and
blissful instrumentation and soulful and almost fragile and a little bit
euphoric and rather endearingly good in an unassuming easy gentle experimental
kind of way – www.myspace.com/junkboymusic

THE ALPS – Something I Might
Regret (Elusive) – Polite friendly mid-paced indie pop, polite enough to
take home to meet the folks and Sunday tea. Far too mild and polite and
daytime indie pop radio friendly and if harmless polite indie pop is what
you want then I guess they’re rather good at it - here it is, we politely
leave with you – www.planetofthealps.com

FLESH EATING FOUNDATION –
Seethe (Rebco) – Bleep and yell industrial machine music, global noise
attacks and dark wave twitch and bang and clunk and clang. Old school
80’s/90’s aggressive industrial earfood of a Judda, Godflesh, GNA nature
for those who like to keep it that way. www.myspace.com/rebco

EBONY ARK – When The City
Is Quiet (Ascendance) – One of those great big female fronted bombastic
Euro-goth metal bands that lots of people seem to like far more than we
do – Evanescence, Nightwish and such, they’re from Spain, here’s the link...
www.myspace.com/ebonyark

PORCUPINE TREE – Nil Recurring
(Peaceville) – Oh look, Porcupine Tree, people love them, I really want
to, I keep going back to this, I should love it with all the brooding bigness
and everything it has – bores the hell out of me. Four tracks, goes on
for about thirty minutes. Critically acclaimed all over the place and getting
bigger by the day and good on ‘em, yer man Steven Wilson and his band have
stuck to their guns and come a long long way since those demo tapes of
the early Organs. Robert Fripp joins them on this new album that came together
during the Fear Of A Blank Planet sessions – here it is, if you
like Pink Floyd and moody epicness and grandiose passages and massive mellodic
intent - long live the good ship Porcupine and all who wish to sail on
her, godspeed you... www.peaceville.com
or www.porcupinetree.com

SUICIDAL WINDS – Chaos Rising
(Pulverised) - Oh I don’t know, they come flooding in here every day, hundreds
of them, week after week – extreme death/black metal bands in a spewtum
of bluster and buzzsaw speed metal riffs you’ve heard a million times before.
Same old vocals, same old unreadable logo, same band photo every single
time, a line of moody looking blokes – bullet belts, leather jackets, t-shirts
with equally unreasonable band logos from equally obscure bands from Norway
or Sweden or bits of the former Soviet Republic – always in an overgrown
graveyard or a rusty old junkyard, one of the shirts always old school
– Venom, Exciter, Hellhammer just so we know they’re for real and have
been in to this much longer than you. Usual song tittles, not that you
can work out any of the cookie monster lyrics (or indeed want to) – all
obeying the same rules, all doing the same things, all deathing and thrashing
and... Suicidal Winds are from Sweden, their album cover features “horrific
artwork by Chilean necro-artist Daniel Desecrator” – and guess what? Lots
of sixth-form skulls and a devilishly scary pentogram, oh mummy! Oh look,
they’re no doubt steeped in the scene and split albums with bands called
Beastial Mockery and they’re as good at the same old thing as anyone else
and if you’re in the mood then they hit the spot just as well as anyone
can – the riffs, the death grunts, the intense relentlessness of it all...
They’re pretty damn good at the same old thing, very good at it, and now
I’m going to take this album off, I shall probably never feel the need
to play it again and there’ll no doubt be another band doing exactly the
same thing and wanting another slice of our attention any moment now...
www.myspace.com/suicidalwinds

THE CROW CLUB – Various (People
Tree) - I know I know, we keep saying this is brilliant and that is excellent
and there’s far too much good music to keep on top of it all and aggghhhhhhhh!
Sorry! (how do you think we feel exploring and writing about it? Sleep
in no longer and option). This album is excellently brilliant as well –
every single track is a treat – all thirteen of them. And the thing is,
they all work so well together. There’s an art to putting together a good
compilation where everything flows and bands and tracks compliment each
other – a good compilation is something you can play and play and never
tire of it – this is one of those soon to be essentially classic compilations.
People Tree is a folk label and this is their second collection, their
second documentation of the currently burgeoning new folk scene. The album
is named after the ‘seminal’ London folk night of the same name and features
music by those who have played there. You have virtual unknowns and new
names next to those a little more known in the scene like the Incredible
String Band’s Clive Palmer. I’m guessing most of the names here on
this wonderfully varied album won’t mean much unless you already know the
scene (and if you do know the scene you probably already know about this
album and don’t need our words). For those of you who think you don’t or
won’t like traditional folk music we cannot recommend this fine album highly
enough – 13 shades and 13 flavours, from hillbilly blues, to folk-rock,
to Twenties flavoured English rag-time ballads to the always good Circulus
with their medieval Moog and crump horm – the English bits, the American
blues flavours, the Celtic jigs and the Renaissance flavour prog-edged
folk of Jade and all the folk sin and tales of roosters and Katy Carr’s
dalliance with Turpin and all the didly-ie diversity of the magpie’s nest
– there’s just no way you can have this album on without reeling around
and jigging like an idiot - www.myspace.com/peopletreerecords

GRANTURA
– Borderline, London, 12th Feb – First on to an audience half of whom are
clearly there just for them (and calling out song names and...) the other
half still coming in and catching on straight away. Six spectacularly ordinary-looking
blokes, this band, in spectacularly unassuming clothes. And that just makes
what they do even better. They amble on and pick up semi-acoustic
guitars, a mandolin, a tambourine, a simple walking bassline begins, and
by the second song you're grinning from ear to ear. It's old-fashioned
honest Americana, fine harmonised country rock, something placed off to
one side, up on an obscure shelf, and way off the vocabulary of a currently
gigging indiewhatever band. It's impossible to describe just how
far away the delightful Grantura are from any drab pub rock (Old Grey Whistle
test circa 1974) notion of the style (those dreadful old clips that the
BBC keep dragging up, the ones that yawnful old Whispering Bob introduces)
– Grantura sound new-minted, as if from the fresh first years of classic
American bands like the country side of The Byrds, The Band and such –
you can almost smell the grass and the sunshine in the February gloom of
London (can’t wait to see them again in a summer festival field). Simple
songs classically, cleverly put together, then played utterly from the
heart – beautiful harmonies and gentle waves washing over – Waves itself
(the recent single) is a highlight. Think of that glorious Coen Brothers
film O Brother Where Art Thou? and the Soggy Bottom Boys endearing themselves
to all who hear... That mandolin sounds just fine, that laid-back
stripped down rhythm giving space for the guitars to arrive for their perfect
moments. And there is a hint of an English heart in there that gives them
something just a little different – Anglo-Americana then... The varied
audience is completely won over, and there's a revelation: this kind of
music was made precisely for little venues and imperfect PAs, and it's
way more powerful than, say, raging metal. Hey look, they’re from London,
their fine debut single came out late last year, they’re even more enjoyable
live - fine fine easy, clever, crafted, highly enjoyable alt.Americana
with that little something extra – momentum temporary halted by awkward
equipment problems can’t hold back their magic, all is forgiven the second
they pick up the music again – fine fine band, pure enjoyment, simple as
that - www.myspace.com/grantura

SINGLE
OF THE WEEKPICTURES
– Cross, Cross Eyed / I can’t Touch Him; I Have Electric Hands (Tangled
Talk) – First things first, really really (really) like this lots and lots
and if you have a taste for the bands who’s names we’re about to divebomb
you with then this is a rather highly recommended debut 7”/download single
from the Brighton band.... Thing is though, they sound rather like a whole
mix of things you’ve maybe heard already. We’re kind of searching a little
in there amongst the very busy rather angular twists and the high-pitch
vocal yelps and the frantic mathematical high-wire indie cut and thrust
and the bits that taste of Rolo Tomassi and Cutting Pink With Knives and
Colossamite and These Arms Are Snakes and Meet Me In St. Louie - and their
more restrained gulps of air that are more Vessels or I Was A Cub Scout
flavoured (very small gulps of air mind you, far too frantic to stand still
for more than a second or two) – we’re searching for something we can pin
down as their own – hey, that’s nit picking and why the hell does everything
need to be pinned down anyway – excellent debut single! They sound like
they threw everything in there, they sound like they’re striving for a
little more than just being part of the pack, they sound like they’re bursting
with ideas and we want more from this band. Limited edition pressing of
just 200 so jump quick before you have to pay thirty quid on ebay. Excellent
single, excellent band, fine intent – and loads of gigs coming up as well.
www.myspace.com/wearepictures
or www.tangledtalk.com

SINGLE
OF THE WEEK 2STE
McCABE – Pink Bomb EP (Cherryade) - Ste’s finest release to-date, his releases
are always good – right back to the very home-made raw-as-hell Stephen
Nancy demo days. “Manchester’s Queen of queer punk” heralded the Manchester
Evening News – and how right they are – infectiously catchy ranting riot-boy
punk pop and no hint of any compromise yet (we didn’t expect there would
be!). Snarling sarcastic biting and homophobe baiting angry bite bite bite
- “Pro-feminist, anti-church”. Angry pop music, not so angry that it isn’t
fun though. He’s actually a Scouser, bit of a Holly Johnson voice (he’ll
probably rage at us for saying that!), he’s got a massive chip on his shoulder
– and we wouldn’t want it any other way, he’s a positive hero... and he’s
got the sound and production nailed down just right now – a fine balance
somewhere between raw lo-fi and studio polish. – imagine a one man ranting
DIY queercore punk rock riot with a drum machine and a hint of Morrissey
and a large slice of Buzzcocks or maybe a bit of Carter USM along with
some Bikini kill/Vile Vile Creatures attitude and songs that just get inside
your head and make you smile (well OK, they may not actually make you smile
that much if you’re a Daily Express reading Tory homophobe or your name
is Tommo). www.myspace.com/stemccabe
or www.cherryademusic.co.uk

ALSO
CHECK OUTTHE
DeRELLAS – All Fired Up EP (Crush World) – Tuneful old school raw-edged
punk-pop and a bit a Ramones/Damned/Sham rock’n roll vibe. Some kind of
a cult punk rock super group, people on the run from time done in bands
like The Glory Strummers, Vibrators, Infant Skull Surgery and Los Paraliticos.
Five no messing straight down the line no-budget in your face glam-tinged
no-hope punk pop ‘n roll – sounds like they’re having a blast. www.myspace.com/thederellas

ALICE
AND THE MAJESTY – I Could Love You (Sunday Best) – Alice McLaughlin with
some clever textured tunes and words and a less frantic more at ease PJ
Harvey/Beth Orton/Suzanne Rhatigan alt rock feel and just a hint of folksy
country from a North London canal boat – www.sundaybest.com

A re-issue of last year's fine album now they have their distribution sorted
out - here's a re-run of the review...

MORVISCOUS
- Free Pop - London-based instrumental five-piece Morviscous are members
of a rare breed - a very rare breed. Without being part of any revival
or reformed outfit, and far too young to be nostalgists, they're making
nifty, wry proggy jazz rock with the feel of what was termed the Canterbury
Scene - bands like Hatfield And The North, Gong, National Health, Egg,
Henry Cow - combined effortlessly with contemporary post-rock like Don
Caballero, Rothko and Bark Psychosis. Its a magical combination.
The Canterbury scene was a sound full of wit and verve - complex, imaginative,
heavy on jazz harmonies - the indie music of the seventies. Morviscous,
however, could only be contemporary: their energy levels are way higher
than most of the aforementioned bands, a spark and liveliness, and a leaning
away from those cheesier jazz progressions. Morviscous don't do twee.
Neither do they fall into the all too common trap of sounding exactly like
someone's post-rock record collection: Godspeed! You Black Emperor need
not sue this time. And if we're going to talk math rock - which,
with a rainbow of different time signatures in every track, we should -
the joy of Morviscous is their complete ease with such things. They
make it sound so easy - the tune and the mood comes first, big clear melody-led
changes that go somewhere meaningful. Only a muso will think they're showing
off.
On 'Free Pop' ideas dance and flow, new tunes and playful digressions appear
out of nowhere, lead the mood down side streets. Ideas are stuffed into
this album. Suddenly you're in another part of town, via The Unassuming
Warmth Of A Night Bus - what a track, eight minutes of light and shade,
uplifting edginess, tension and dark wary humour and the final vibraphone
release of a dawn walk home. My Face Your Doily (title of the year)
has so much going on that a week of listens later it's still revealing
itself. Each composition has a subtlety and depth that lasts; the playing
is tight but never self-conscious, production live and natural. For
all its adventures, Free Pop hangs together in a satisfying whole, a distinctive
Morviscous sound that is slightly dark, with a feel that is in some mysterious
way London-flavoured. Above all, this album really does live up to
its name: the creative freedom of avant prog delivered with tuneful accessibility.
Morviscous are something special. www.morviscous.com

A new
occupied social centre opened in Hackney this week – having fought off
raids by police and landlords, it is now open – get involved! 231 Lower
Clapton Road, Hackney (former Chimes nightclub) http://therampart.wordpress.com

Bristol
No Borders blockaded the Portishead Border & Immigration Agency this
week, getting there at 3am and chaining themselves to a car to block entry.
The centre is a base for the dawn raid squads which snatch and detain asylum
seekers from their homes to begin the process of deportation. www.noborders.org.uk

Earth
First! Winter Moot 2008, Nottingham, February 22-24th. Skill sharing, planning
for action on climate change, GM crop trials, mega-dams in Iceland and
more. Open to those experienced in ecological direct action, and those
who want to get involved. £15 including accom. and food, at Sumac
Centre, Gladstone Street Nottingham, web http://earthfirst.org.uk

THE
ORGAN MAILING LIST - If you want to be on the ORGAN/ORG Records e.mail
list then you need to get in touch E.MAIL HERE.

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ORGAN
242 - CHRIS SCHLARB, DANAVA, BAUHAUS, THE DEAL WAS FOR THE DIAMOND,
FIGHTING WITH WIRE, THE DICKIES, TUSK. PELICAN, ORCHARD TRIP, COBWEB, THE
LOVED ONES, AVERSE SEFIRA, ATLANTIS, THE HUGUENOTS, FACEBREAKER, ASCENSION
OF THE WATCHERS, THE DEATH SET. KUNK, THE BLAKES, YOUNG HOLLYWOOD, CURRENT
93...